Emile Durkheim: Selected Writings on Education - Vol. 2

Emile Durkheim: Selected Writings on Education - Vol. 2

Synopsis

Emile Durkheim is widely lauded as one of the founding fathers of modern Sociology and for his substantial contributionto the sociology of education. This set brings some of his most important writings on the subject together for the first time."

Excerpt

This book consists of translations of essays and other items by Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) which have not been translated into English before.* As a revival of interest in this great French sociologist is taking place, the work of translation continues, encouraged by such developments.

The translations which are presented here relate to the two connected subjects of morality and education, which were crucial to the thought of Durkheim in general and more particularly to his social theory. It has not been thought necessary to reproduce English translations which have already been made, be they chapters taken from Durkheim’s books, articles, or reviews. The work of translation is arduous, and, because there is still much to be done, it was thought undesirable to attempt any retranslations. What has been translated up to now on morality and education can be gleaned from the Bibliography.

As in a previous volume (W. S. F. Pickering (ed.) 1975 Durkheim on Religion, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London and Boston) we have presented items in their entirety and have avoided reproducing in translated form fragments of books or articles published for some ad hoc purpose. It is to be hoped, therefore, that this volume will contribute to the growing corpus of translations of Durkheim, in which each book, article or review by him stands in its own right. However, unlike the previous volume, there are cases in which a certain amount of editorial excursion has had to be made and this relates to items which consist of reports of academic discussions in which Durkheim took part. Such debates were associated with the Société Francaise de Philosophie, which met regularly in Paris

* Just at the time of going to press it was learnt that one item, introduction à la morale’ (1920a), will probably appear in translation before the publication of this book (see M. Traugott (ed.), Émile Durkheim on Institutional Analysis, University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1978). Also, another piece, ‘La Grandeur morale de la France: l’école de demain’ (1916c), has very recently been discovered in translation in a somewhat obscure American book published in 1919 (see Buisson and Farrington, 1919, in the Bibliography).